University of Virginia Library

Placing of the Motor.

As on other points, aviators differ widely in their ideas as to the proper position for the motor. Wright locates his on the lower plane, midway between the front and rear edges, but considerably to one side of the exact center. He then counter-balances the engine weight by placing his seat far enough away in the opposite direction to preserve the center of gravity. This leaves a space in the center between the motor and the operator in which a passenger may be carried without disturbing the equilibrium.

Bleriot, on the contrary, has his motor directly in front and preserves the center of gravity by taking his seat well back, this, with the weight of the aeroplane, acting as a counter-balance.

On the Curtiss machine the motor is in the rear, the forward seat of the operator, and weight of the horizontal rudder and damping plane in front equalizing the engine weight.